Chill Out This Thanksgiving With These 8 Heat-and-Serve Meals for 12

Thanksgiving is hands-down, unequivocally and undeniably my favorite major holiday of the year. (National IPA Day is still waiting to be recognized as “major” by some.)

Too many holidays require things that are exhausting and stressful. Do I have enough money for all of the gifts? What costume should I wear? Is that leprechaun going to attack me? Not cool, man.

Thanksgiving is free from all of that. On Thanksgiving you eat a great meal, then you watch some football, take a nap, eat some more food, watch some more football and just chill with family and friends.

That’s a holiday!

That’s all well and good if you’re not the one who has to make that massive feast. I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to be the one who does all the cooking this year. There are plenty of options to have your Thanksgiving dinner ready-made by your favorite grocery store or restaurant.

It just depends on what you’re willing to spend.

Order In Your Thanksgiving Meal

The average Thanksgiving meal has 12 people ready to dig in, according to the Pew Research Center. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. Sure, some of them, like the young ones and your weird uncle, may be at the kids’ table, but they’ll want food nonetheless.

So, what are your options when you want to skip the gourmet cooking and let someone else do the heavy lifting? There are plenty of ready-made Thanksgiving dinners available, giving you tons of prices and menu options to choose from.

Here are eight companies ready to stuff your family for the big day.

Publix

If you live in the south, you probably know and love Publix. It loves you right back with the pre-made Publix deli large turkey dinner. All you have to do is buy it, take it home and heat it up, and it’ll feed 14 to 16 people.

This meal rings in at $84.99, which comes out to $5.31 to $6.07 per person.

It includes:

One 16- to 18-pound fully-cooked Butterball turkey

5 pounds of dressing

5 pounds of mashed potatoes

64 ounces of Publix gravy

56 ounces of marshmallow delight

32 ounces of Publix cranberry-orange relish

Some items require up to 150 minutes to heat. Heating instructions are included.

Again, it’s pretty basic but with a fun twist on the cranberry sauce and the marshmallow delight, which is essentially a fruit salad with marshmallows, pineapple, cherries, coconut and sour cream. Tasty.

Safeway/Albertson’s

The Traditional Oven-Roasted Turkey Dinner serves four to six people, so we’ll have to order two of them. But it comes with the basics, and the price is pretty competitive. It’s perfect for the smaller family or those who don’t want to get too fancy.

The price for four to six people is $49.99. Since we have to buy two of them, our total will be $99.98, which comes out to $8.33 per person for 12 people.

Hy-Vee

If you’re lucky enough to live in the Midwest where you can shop at Hy-Vee, you have a great holiday meal option with its family feast turkey dinner. Those outside the Midwest don’t know what they’re missing from this Iowa-based grocery store chain.

The price for up to 12 people is $129.99, which comes out to $10.83 per person.

The meal includes:

14- to 16-pound Butterball turkey

48 ounces of turkey gravy

Two large sides of mashed potatoes

Four large sides of your choice

24 dinner rolls

This is a no-frills, basic Thanksgiving meal, but there’s plenty of it! How much is 48 ounces of gravy? That’s 6 cups of savory delight plus over one pound of turkey per stomach. Perfect for bulking up for a hard, Midwestern winter. The instructions say to plan for 2 ½ hours to reheat the meal.

Whole Foods Market

Okay, you’re ready to pull out all the stops. Go big or go home is a great motto for this holiday. Whole Foods’ festive feast for 12 isn’t cheap, but it’ll blow the doors off your Thanksgiving — as well as belt buckles and buttons.

The price for up to 12 people is $249.99, which comes out to $20.83 per person for 12 people.

It includes:

16-pound roasted turkey

4-pound brown sugar spiral-cut ham

6 pounds of creamy mashed potatoes

6 pounds of organic traditional herb stuffing

3 pounds of organic turkey gravy

2 pounds of organic cranberry-orange sauce

2 pounds of green beans with crispy garlic and parsley

2 pounds of roasted butternut squash

2 pounds of organic creamed spinach and kale

1.88-pound pumpkin pie

1.88-pound apple pie

Yeah, that’s a meal for 12 with 20 pounds of meat. All in all, it’s 46.76 pounds of delicious food. That’s almost 4 pounds per guest. At $249.99, it’s a more expensive option, but you’re getting a lot of food for your buck.

Remember, holidays should be fun and relaxing, not tiring and taxing. Sometimes it pays to spend a little money to buy back your time.

So this Thanksgiving, take a load off and let someone else do the cooking. Besides, your football team needs your help cheering, and it’s hard to do that from the kitchen.

Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.